home phone - time to dump DECT network for wifi/VOIP?

Summary Questions:

- can you make internal house calls from wifi/voip phone to wifi/voip phone?

- is wifi an alternative for DECT?

The story:

I need to upgrade a home cordless phone network. Extra challenge is that the "home" is an ancient building (6 centuries), largely stone with walls of varying thickness (up to 4 ft), etc: wireless nightmare. Building is about

150x150ft. And then there's the outdoors, but inside coverage is key for now. Analog phones used currently are long range phones (several km coverage, can hear my brain sizzle when on the phone). Desire to replace is the much better sound quality of digital.

If I choose DECT I have excellent sound, can call internally between handsets and do all sorts of wonderful home phone things. However, the coverage is limited with all the thick walls and I would need to get several pricey repeaters to put in a DECT network with decent coverage.

If wifi/voip phones such as the new Linksys ones mentioned on voxilla can perform the functions of a DECT home system (the ones I use anyway, like calling one handset from another internally, or passing an external call through from one handset to another) I could opt for using the cash instead for beefing up my current wifi network instead of installing a second wireless network (DECT).

Any views on this?

Can you replace the functionality of two DECT handsets and base station with two wifi/voip handsets and an Access point, or through some other setup?

Are we ready to dump DECT for wifi/voip?

Many thanks,

Bob

Reply to
Bob Newheart
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Reply to
John Navas

You can replace your DECT with Voip but if you've already got issues with a DECT signal through walls, you'll have the same problem and will likely have to use several access points.

You can buy DECT repeaters.

David.

Reply to
David Taylor

Thanks for your reaction but it didn't address my questions which were pertaining to a comparison of DECT to WIFI/VOIP, particularly with regards to internal home phone calls.

B
Reply to
Bob Newheart

Thanks. You're correct in pointing out thick stone walls pose the same problem for wifi as for dect. However, the wifi network is already there with a strong senao AP and a decent 15 dbi omni (or 19, I forgot) and as I said I dont have any dect stuff yet, I am replacing analog material. If I would go with dect I would be putting in a second wireless network which, though probably practical (voip/wifi still has a way to go), feels silly. Finally my question regarding the ability to call from one wifi/voip handset to another within the house, i.e. within your own network. If that would not work wifi-voip handsets are not a solution for me here, and the decision is also made. Someone answered it could be done but the SIP service would need to specifically cater to that or alternatively I could get my own mini SIP server. By now the dect solution, even though I'll be putting in a second wireless network, seems the more practical approach. I guess what I'm looking for is an AP which has specific functionality to let two wifi/voip handsets attached to it talk to eachother. Havent seen these yet. We'll go with dect for the next 3 years and see things develop.

regards,

Bob

I am aware the same problem with thick walls and wifi goes for gsmHowever I already have a wifi network in place. It makes more sense to strengthen

"David Taylor" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@news.cable.ntlworld.com...

Reply to
Bob Newheart

I think in an ideal world you could make this work, but without a "system" from someone I doubt it's going to do what you want.

Yeah, there's probably an Asterix solution, but I don't know enough about it yet, and it's nontrivial...

Reply to
William P.N. Smith

The question was wrong ;)

It's not Wifi that's enabling the internal calls but the service provider.

I use Vonage (and have used others) and have both a mix of cordless and corded phones. I can call between them although they are both (in my case) on different numbers.

I haven't seen any specific wifi phones that allow intercalling but then I haven't looked. They tend to be suited towards use for either home or hostspot but not building a DECT pbx which is what you're asking for. I would have thought though that you could create a speed dial for the SIP endpoint of each phone by IP address so you should be able to at least call between them, which extra services you could achieve would be somewhat more dependent on what you bought.

I still raise the issue that simply replacing DECT with Wifi isn't the solution if you are already experiencing radio signal problems. Wifi won't solve that without a supporting wireless infrastructure which you could also achieve with DECT basestation and repeaters.

David.

Reply to
David Taylor

That omni is probably a really bad choice as the pattern will be very flat and you could find much worse coverage than with a lower gain. Have you already performed a site survey to establish signal strength?

I disagree. There's nothing that annoys people on phones more than constant voice break up which could happen with the wireless network if people are using it heavily at the same time. I understand where you're coming from regarding two networks but DECT isn't that difficult.

I don't see that as an AP function though, it's a function of the SIP protocol, like I said in the other post, you should be able to call between each phone as a SIP endpoint but may end up stuffing much more in to achieve what can already be done easily with DECT. I stuck in a wireless LAN with DECT PBX for a small office some years ago, worked well for what they wanted and turned out a smart move because they moved shortly afterwards and could take it all with them. :)

David.

Reply to
David Taylor

David,

Thanks for your detailed replies below and to my other post.

The surveys I've done for wifi are limited to trying different spots for the AP and omni (not a commercial project). Possible placing spots were limited due to the fact that it involves a museum and thus cables and drilling (from phone line to AP) need to be kept to a minimum. I will see how DECT performs with different placings with an old siemens

2015 and repeater the next time I'm at the site. I dont have any professional tools for analyzing signal strength so walking around while talking will have to do.

Fully agree with the relevance of this drawback. It was more a theoretical thinking approach.

Bob

Reply to
Bob Newheart

You might find that the DECT phone has a survey mode. I had one that did this after a few key presses, it would display signal strength.

If it's an off the shelf from Dixons then probably not or if it does, finding the option which might not be exposed in the menu could be a challenge :)

David.

Reply to
David Taylor

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